Thanks. The Zojirushi seems to be the gold standard. Have perused several of your cookbook suggestions and will order at least one. I'll probably take a trip into Chinatown to hopefully be able to check out the difference between the 3- and 5.5-cup sizes as well as compare brands. Not knowing the minimum & maximum capacities of either size in terms of quarts of "total stuff" gives me no real basis of comparison regarding practicality. If none of the larger ones won't handle a single serving of oatmeal, and if the small size seems like too much money for too little functionality/flexibility, then I'll just give up and stick with the little instant packets :-( ... Or start making big batches on weekends on the stove (LeCreuset works dandy) to divvy up into individual servings that can be nuked during the week ... And keep my ancient slow cooker or replace it with an automatic model (quite a bit less money than a micom rice cooker). LeCreuset surely will do a decent job on brown rice too, which doesn't need to be ready first thing in the morning anyway. But the idea of a little rice cooker that does easy fresh oatmeal each morning AND some other valuable tricks sure does sound nice.

LindaC, it's all in what you're comfortable with. Remember, I'm the person who has had a couple of house fires and so I don't ever light a fire in the fireplace and I refuse to burn candles. It's my own particular phobia... I do have an old Presto pressure cooker which I don't use a lot but I really like it for certain thins. Elery uses it to make beans, I'd prefer to just dump mine in the crockpot in the morning. I do use it to make chop suey for Ashley, even slightly tough round comes out fork tender. I don't like taditional chili in the crockpot, the ground beef "overcooks". I am a huge consumer of vegetables, though, and sometimes make a vegetarian chili that's delicious. Plus, like Chase, it gets used as a "warming" device for office potlucks, to keep soup warm and even to make oatmeal because I'm not a morning person and would never make oatmeal before I go to work, and I detest the instant stuff. Annie

I've used a pressure cooker for over 35 years, and am so dependent on it that I always had one in my travel trailer as well as my own kitchen. My daughters both own one; one daughter uses hers as often as I do. Believe it or not, she requested one for a birthday present while she was still in college! The other one reluctantly took the one from her grandma's RV (after they sold their RV), and now really likes using it. Roasts -- chili -- spaghetti sauce -- sirloin tip steaks -- are just a few of the things I make in mine. It's used at least once a week. I currently have a Presto stainless steel whose handle has loosened too much to use, so I am using the Mirror aluminum model that used to be in my travel trailer. Donna

dcarch- You are the epitome of frugal, and much admired :-). I've never been competitive - it just doesn't make sense to me. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my own "craziness" at times..... tricia\- I wouldn't have thought there was that much difference between the Ninja and the Vitamix (especially compared to the blender I bought in 1970 at a garage sale when I was 17 and just out of high school and used for decades \- anything would have been better \- hahaha), but there sure is a difference. The pulp from making almond milk is much finer in the Vitamix. I had trouble getting the Ninja to make canary seed milk (it left more seed than milk and took much longer to blend), but the Vitamix did an excellent job of it in just a few minutes of blending. With fresh Colorado peaches available, we've been gobbling down a lot of Peach Soy Sherbet (except I use almond or coconut milk instead of soy) \- which takes about 40\-60 seconds to make. \-Grainlady